Broken Spark
by TehMarishal
Summary: One-shot. Prowl caused a girl to get hurt in an accident on the road. He and Ratchet are determined to help her. But once they do, they discover something very unexpected. Please R


_A/N Okay, this fic is co-authored by myself and Aren-Kae from , aka Celestial-Insanity on Deviantart. This started out as her idea, and all of it is her idea. She wrote the first scene, then I added onto it. We don't own Transformers, we just did this for fun. Lizy belongs to me and Hot Rod's Girl from . This is basically Aren-Kae's take on what could have also happened with Lizy when she became part robot, and this has nothing to do with "Daughter of the Cybertron" or "Secrets", except for having the same OC. That is all._

_0o0o0o0o0o0o0_

_Why...?_

You try to gasp the words, but all that leaves your body is a shuddering hiss that seems to make your entire body tremble. You blink blearily at the bright lights above you, trying to take it all in among the pain.

Please... leave me alone. _You whisper this through cracked and broken lips, lips that had seen too many hours without sufficient hydration. You can hear a machine whirr beside you, something large. There is a grumble and moan of metal on metal, and even in your pain-filled state you can feel the rumble at your side._

Words. 

"I'm afraid this may be too much for her. Bio-physiology isn't something I'm familiar with–and on a human?"

_You groan loudly as a slight movement jostles broken ribs. You should be dead by now. You should be out of it. Why aren't you? Why do you have to suffer? Is this a sick trick? Have you walked into a demon's den?_

"Just do it. If it doesn't work... then at least we tried."

No, _you want to tell him. You did not want to try anything! You want to lay down and sleep and cry alone, hiding your face from shame as you die. You want them to just leave you alone so you can just get away, get away from this pain, because somehow you know that while they are there, talking, you will stay awake._

There is a sudden coldness upon your mouth, and an object blocks out the bleary light above you. You try another protest, but the object does not move. You try to raise your arm and nearly faint, even with the liquid they're pumping through your veins so you don't lose it. The movement causes a sudden pain across your entire right side and you just want to scream and scream and scream...

"How did she do this?"

_The first voice mutters something about an accident, something about a drunk driver. Why were you so stupid? ...why, why, why?_

And memories slowly begin to come back and you want to curl into a ball. "The entire ride side of her body was crushed," _the voice explains in that mechanical monotone of his._ "Her ribs are digging into her lungs, that's why I put the tube in her throat... Her arm's beyond repair, we'll need to use parts for that, too... And a mechanical leg. See this here?" You don't want to. "A pole went through her upper thigh, through that big artery. Ripped it open. I'm going to have to replace the entire leg..."

_Silence._

"And her spine?"

_What about your spine? You can... you can..._

And you realize that you can't feel anything below your waist.

You're paralyzed. Rather than shock you, you feel a distant grimness of mind–like you just don't care any more. You'll be scarred, of course... and you'll probably die. Life was beginning to get annoying, too frustrating. Why wouldn't they just let you sleep...?

"Nothing to worry about... too much. I can do it... Are you sure, Prowl?"

"I'm sure."

"Then... then stay still..."

_You hear a sudden hiss of movement, and through your bleary eyes you see the IV that's been keeping you alive... it's been disconnected..._

Pain hits you harder than ever. You don't even manage a scream before your mind lets go.

0o0o0o0o0o0o0

Several hours had gone by. Ratchet glanced up from the girl who lay on the medical berth, checking his internal chronometer. Yes, exactly ten hours had gone by.

Prowl's visor flickered on and off a couple of times, then activated fully. He was now fully awake. He glanced off to one side for a moment then slowly sat up, swinging his legs over the side of his berth as he did so.

"How is she?" the ninja asked.

"Well, the operation went very smoothly all things considered," Ratchet said.

Prowl frowned. "All things considered?" he repeated carefully. "What do you mean?"

"There were complications," the medic said. "And I had to download all the information I could about human anatomy from the internet, plus I needed to call the local hospital for a few details. But in the end, I think I succeeded."

"Will she be alright?" That was all that Prowl wanted to know. The ninja didn't need to know about the intricate procedures involved with the operation or how it went; he needed to know the results. Would the girl live, or wouldn't she?

"I think she will be," Ratchet assured him, his gruff voice taking on a somewhat gentler tone. He reached out and placed a servo on the ninja's shoulder. "We've both done all we can, Prowl. And perhaps between my rusty medical skills and you donating some of your parts…" He nodded indicatively toward the girl. "She may well have a chance of surviving."

Prowl nodded, looking down at the girl with a look of relief on his face. She appeared to be in her very late teens or very early twenties. The true reason why he'd been so determined to help her was because he himself was responsible for the accident where she'd gotten hurt.

Although he would not discuss the details of how it happened, or what exactly happened out there, he and Ratchet had discussed in great detail the idea of putting robotic technology into her—from Prowl's own body—to "repair" her damage. It had taken some time to convince Optimus Prime to allow them to do it, but in the end they did. Even Ratchet was a bit reluctant to try at first, but he was fairly confident he could succeed.

"Hmm, strange," Ratchet commented as he ran his scanner over the girl's limp, still body.

Prowl looked at him. He was completely alert now. "What is it?" the ninja asked with concern. Was the girl okay? Had something happened?

"I don't know how this could have happened, but…" Ratchet ran his scanners over the girl again, double-checking his readouts. "This is impossible," he muttered.

"What?" Prowl demanded, a trace of impatience in his voice.

"The girl," Ratchet said, raising his optics to look at the younger mech, "has a spark. I don't know how, but she definitely has a spark."

Prowl's optics darted from Ratchet down to the sleeping girl's face. "A spark? But how is that possible?"

"I don't know. But there's no mistake about it. She has a spark."

The ninja simply stared at the human, unable to think of anything to say. She had been given some of his circuitry and armor to make up for her injured body components, and to repair the damage. But neither of them had thought anything like this could happen. It hadn't even crossed their processors as a possibility.

After a few moments of silence passed Prowl finally asked, "Do you have any theories whatsoever?" Prowl himself could not think of any. He knew that the Dinobots had been given sparks through the power of Sari's key, albeit indirectly. But this was a completely different case. Sari's key had not been used at all in this case, and Prowl had never heard of an organic having a spark. The closest was BlackArachnia, but she had originally been a full Autobot—she gained her organic half later.

"Did she have any Cybertronian technology in her before you worked on her?" Prowl asked.

Ratchet shook his head. "No the second question. She was fully human when you brought her in here; my scans showed that. Now, as to the first question…" The medic trailed off. He looked thoughtful.

"What?" Prowl asked.

"Eh, this may seem a bit far-fetched, but under the circumstances… it seems like it could be a distinct possibility."

"What is it, Ratchet?"

"Prime and I once discussed a theory about sentient life," Ratchet began slowly. "Every life form has always had a spark. Machines that do not have sparks are not life forms, they are just work machines, programmed to do whatever work you tell them to. Now, Prime and I deduced once that maybe, just maybe…" The old medic paused, casting a glance toward the human girl. "Maybe it's possible that humans are different from all the other organic life on this planet."

"But they do not have sparks," Prowl said skeptically. "They are no different from the other organic creatures on this world, except for their knowledge and ability to build things."

"Ah, but do you know that for certain?" Ratchet shook his head slightly. "Some humans claim they have something called a 'soul'. It's not something that can be detected with our scanners, or seen with their own X-rays. It's not an internal organ that can be found or touched within the body. But it is… an energy source, somehow, that exists within the human body."

Ratchet paused thoughtfully, then went on. "What if it's possible that the human soul is the organic equivalent of a spark? Think about it. Humans have incredibly short life spans, only a hundred and twenty years or so, tops. That's not enough time for a soul to develop into its true potential."

Prowl listened with amazement. Now that Ratchet had finished, the ninja thoughtfully looked toward the girl again. "Are you saying that perhaps the Cybertronian components we gave her… helped her human soul develop into a spark?"

"Something like that," Ratchet nodded. "The energies that make up her soul may have somehow changed, or collected together, in response to the changes made to her body. That spark within her has been there all along. It just wasn't visible before."

Both of them fell silent. And now they knew that they had discovered something about humans that they had never known before.

They also knew that when she awoke, they would have to be there for her, to do their very best to help her recover and adapt to the changes in her body.


End file.
